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Chapter 25
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Mary Barton, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Employers vs. Workers
Sexuality and Danger
Christianity
Poverty and Morality
Empathy vs. Ignorance
Summary
Analysis
On the train to Liverpool—Mary’s first train ride ever—Mary overhears two lawyers’ clerks gossiping about the trial, suggesting that Jem’s conviction is certain and that Mr. Carson pressured the authorities to hurry the trial. Once in Liverpool, Mary gets directions from a policeman to the house of Will’s landlady Mrs. Jones. When Mary knocks on Mrs. Jones’s door and asks for Will, Mrs. Jones is initially annoyed and suspicious, thinking perhaps Mary and Will are engaged in a scandalous love affair. Nevertheless, she informs a shocked Mary that Will never actually traveled to the Isle of Man and that he sailed off on the John Cropper this very morning.
The clerks’ gossip further emphasizes that nearly everyone believes Jem is guilty of Harry’s murder, putting Jem in real danger of execution. The gossip also shows the influence of rich employers like Mr. Carson over the criminal legal system, suggesting that the trial of working-class Jem for upper-class Harry’s murder won’t be fair and reminding readers of Mr. Carson’s unchristian desire for vengeance. Finally, Mrs. Jones’s suspicion that Mary is somehow sexually scandalous shows the death grip that sexual propriety has on the minds of the novel’s mid-Victorian characters.
Themes
